Newsday starts off the post game coverage for Tuesday with the Islander perspective here and the Ranger perspective here.

"You don't want to see that much fisticuffs in hockey, but sometimes, it has a tendency to bring a team a little closer," Isles coach Ted Nolan said. Asked if he was worried about his goal.tender suffering an injury, Nolan added, "Ricky is a team guy first. He saw Simon get jumped by two guys, and he jumped in to help his teammate. You don't want to see a guy like Ricky do that, but he did it for the right reasons."

* When Montoya came out of his net, DiPietro instructed him to drop his gloves and take off his mask and then pulled Montoya down and pummeled him.

"Any time you see a teammate fighting two guys, two good fighters, you've got to jump in and make sure he doesn't get hurt," DiPietro said of Simon, who left without talking to reporters. "It's good to see guys stand up for each other."

"It's a great rivalry," said Guerin, who got his first taste of it. "There was some bad blood from last year. Some things needed to get sorted out, and they did."

Said Renney: "I thought Chris Simon was out there to play hockey tonight. I thought his first intention was to play a strong game of hockey and get himself ready for the season ... It's a spontaneous game and things can erupt ... Both teams were finishing their checks. I don't think anybody was looking for a number on the back. I don't think anybody was out to hunt anybody down."

"I didn't really have a choice, you had to stick up to your teammates," said Montoya, who said the lump over his left eye was caused by a puck in practice, not a fist. "I wanted to showcase my talents but obviously, he wanted to get something going."

Here is the second peirod brawl and goalie fight in full:

Already Scotty Morrison of CBC sports is blaming the league and Simon for him being allowed to play the preseason here even though he apparently did not watch the game and needed reports of actions by players. He also wonders about the response in the US to this.

NYI Fan Central Comments:Morrison is kind of funny here, does he honestly think anyone cared about this game either way in the US? Not like it's going to kick Jobba Chamberlain off the back page in a dress up as a team initiation. I don't think he understands no one is going to notice this at all locally except maybe someone looking for the usual justification to not cover hockey.

Updated:Greg Logan updated his blog Fisticuffs and fraternity to include last night's game and wonder if Simon could have games added on to his suspension. He also wonders if DiPietro fighting after two concussions was the right decision.

“I saw he got a match penalty,” Islanders coach Ted Nolan said of Simon. “That was no way a match penalty. We saw it on tape. Everything in preseason, they’re a little rusty. That’s one of those things where Garth [general manager Snow] will speak on that later.”

“I believe in man-to-man combat, not man-to-two-men combat,” Nolan said. “Somebody can take care of themselves, but not having two guys jump on one guy all the time. That’s what they did. Simon handled himself the first time pretty good, but he got jumped the second time from behind, so, that’s why Ricky jumped in.”

“You don’t usually worry about a guy like Si, but when he’s trying to fight two guys, you’ve got to get your nose dirty,” DiPietro said. “Whatever I can do to help out a teammate in need, I’m going to do it.”

* Asked if he considered the risk of another concussion.

“No, at that moment, you’re worried about your guys. That’s all that matters at that moment is protecting your guys, protecting each other. I thought we did a good job of sticking together. That’s what good teams do. They stick together and fight and do whatever they have to do to get a win. We did that tonight.”

“Simon has to get game-ready because he’s going to miss the first five games of the regular season,” Nolan said. “We didn’t play him in the game tonight to [fight]. We played him to get him ready for when he misses five games at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, that happened, so, we’ll make up our lineup in the next couple days heading into the Garden.”

Larry Brooks of the Post sort of wrote one Islander centric article here his Ranger centric article with quotes from DiPietro are here.

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